Thursday, July 09, 2015

Political correctness in SF and Mumia Abu-Jamal

C.W. Nevius quotes Willie Brown in this morning's column about the killing of Kathryn Steinle:

As former mayor and Chronicle columnist Willie Brown told me this week, “I think our elected types need to be sure they don’t use political correctness to put the lives of the public in danger.”

Just so. But let's harken back to when Brown was Mayor of San Francisco and he declared August 16, 1997, as "Justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal Day."

Fast forward to September 27, 2004, when the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a Resolution "urging a new trial for Mumia Abu Jamal," who was sentenced to death after he killed a Philadelphia cop.

But the evidence was overwhelming. A jury---and not all the members were white as it included two African Americans---convicted Abu-Jamal and sentenced him to death. After police pulled over Abu-Jamal's brother for driving the wrong way on a one-way street, a battle followed. [Daniel]Faulkner was shot five times, once between the eyes. Authorities found Abu-Jamal near the mortally wounded Faulkner because he could not run away as his brother did; Faulkner had shot Abu-Jamal in the chest. Also, four eyewitnesses identified Abu-Jamal. Two witnesses heard Abu-Jamal admit to shooting Faulkner and saying that he hoped Faulkner would die.

No, the Mumia fiasco isn't "all on Mirkarimi." All those who voted for that resolution were dumb and uninformed about the facts of that case: Mumia was black, a Muslim, and convicted of killing a white cop, which supposedly meant that his conviction was due to some kind of injustice. That was clearly untrue to anyone familiar with the case.

You refer to my earlier blog post maintaining that Mirkarimi has been a good sheriff. That's still true.

I've been following his short career as sheriff with some interest. See this, this, this, and this.

Of course the guy who shot Kathryn Steinle should have been turned over to ICE to be deported, though, in spite of his criminal record, he didn't have a history of violence. Though it's unlikely that Mirkarimi personally made the decision to release him, it happened on his watch, and he will probably pay the political price.